Gallery: Messy mayhem at mud festival

By Frances Cha, CNN

Updated 4:45 AM ET, Tue July 23, 2013

11 photos

Boryeong Mud Festival – South Korea's most popular festival kicked off in South Chungcheong Province last weekend and will run until July 28. Festival organizers are expecting 3 million participants, with 10% from foreign countries.

Hide Caption

1 of 11

11 photos

It was the only place he felt like he belonged ... – Visitors engage in activities from mud facials to mud marathons. Mud fountains, slides and wrestling tubs are also popular.

Hide Caption

2 of 11

11 photos

Mud bath – Everyone gets horizontal inside the mud tub.

Hide Caption

3 of 11

11 photos

Eye masks – Wise move. You probably don't want to get it in your eyes, no matter how beneficial it is.

Hide Caption

4 of 11

11 photos

Tourist magnet – Thanks to the mud festival, local beaches "are so full of foreign tourists that one could mistake them for Europe or the United States," reported local news agency Yonhap.

Hide Caption

5 of 11

11 photos

Free facials – The festival was originally launched to promote the cosmetic benefits of Boryeong's local mud. Mud packs and other cosmetic items are for sale at pop-up gift booths at the festival.

Hide Caption

6 of 11

11 photos

More than just friends – Festival organizers amped up the Family Zone this year to make it friendlier for traveling families.

Hide Caption

7 of 11

11 photos

Her newest Facebook photo – Probably not the best idea to take your phone in there ...

Hide Caption

8 of 11

11 photos

Beer festival – On top of the mud fest, a local beer company is adding a rock festival and beer festival to the mix.

Hide Caption

9 of 11

11 photos

Cosmetic benefits? – Face and body benefits maybe, but that stuff has got to be murder to get out of your hair.

Hide Caption

10 of 11

11 photos

Watch your back – Watch everything, for that matter.

Hide Caption

11 of 11

Story highlights

Millions of visitors get filthy in Boryeong, South Korea

Organizers aim to make mud festival more family friendly this year

Everything mud-related goes

Festival originally launched to promote cosmetic mud treatments

Call it the world's biggest mud fight or its largest group cosmetic treatment -- either way, millions of visitors are making their way to Boryeong, South Chungcheong Province this week for South Korea's most popular festival.

The 16th annual Boryeong Mud Festival, which kicked off this past weekend and will run until July 28, hopes to beat its record of 3 million participants last year.

Organizers say this year's mud bath is expected to attract 300,000 foreign tourists, up 22,000 from last year. Korean media have reported that trains to Boryeong are already packed with dirt-ready foreigners.

Originally launched to promote the cosmetic benefits of the local mud, the festival has become an annual frenzy in which visitors take part in numerous mud-related activities, including mud wrestling and a mud marathon.

"This year, we amped up the Famiily Zone to meet the demands of people traveling with children," say event organizers. "There are many foreign families traveling to Korea just for the festival."

Local beer company Hite Jinro (maker of the best-selling selling liquor in the world) is throwing a rock festival in Boryeong for the first time this year and hosting K-Pop concerts and "garden beer parties" until August.

To cater to the tastes of foreign visitors, some area restaurants are being converted into pizza and hamburger joints during the festival to provide dining options beyond traditional hoe-jip (Korean sashimi restaurants) or restaurants selling grilled shellfish.